Funnies

I’ve heard several commentators describe the conclusion of the 111th Congress as “kumbaya,” a word I chose only as an excuse to say I dislike it. “Hunky dory” is more up my alley. I agree in part with their conclusion, but only in light of what had preceded it. On balance I consider the result of two Congressional years a mitigated disaster.

Yes, unemployment coverage was extended. But it doesn’t require deep thinking to see that withholding approval indefinitely by Republicans would have been suicidal, and for such a relatively piddling taxpayer expense. “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” and “Start” are not core GOP issues. That’s Tea Party stuff and these people aren’t going anywhere. Most of them were born Republican, living testimonials to the benefits of Geritol, and possibly Benzedrine. The folks who call the shots got what they wanted most, an extension of those Bush tax cuts, specifically the part closest to certain hearts and portfolios.

To routinely use the words “rich” or “wealthy” in a pejorative sense is simplistic. Not everybody who happens to be up in the chips resents being taxed an additional small fraction of their already comfortable income as a consequence. But those who sign the checks for Tea Party rallies, just a figure of speech from another era, surely do and they are the Republican Party.

Al Capp, explaining his marrying Lil’ Abner’ to Daisy May, cited comic page competition from “an orphan who talked like the Republican platform of 1928.” That’s where the Republican Party is today. They are trying to make the rich richer, as they were then, and doing their best to make sure that the poor have plenty of children.

Figures may vary with the source, but thirty years ago the top one percent of wealthiest Americans owned something less than ten percent of the nation’s wealth. Today they own twenty five percent. During this time our federal income tax code has become less progressive or more regressive, take your pick.  Correlation is not always causation. But the specifics particular to this case make a strong argument for it being both.     

On a recent TV show Darrell Issa, a prominent Congressional Republican, said that what’s needed is a “simpler and flatter tax code.” The first part was just to set up the second. Who, other than an accountant, might object to simplicity, which explains why it was mentioned first. For Republicans flat is where it’s at, or better yet regressive if they can pull it off.

In 1928 the Hoover campaign slogan was “a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage.” The bubble had yet to burst and it worked for him and his Congressional kin in their impressive electoral victory. Republican success in the recent Congressional elections was a direct result of the Obama administration’s inability to do in two years what took Hoover’s successor seven. Circumstances have changed. But the Republican arsenal, now as in 1928, is still in the firm grip of Daddy Warbucks.